Google, once again, has been caught violating its own privacy policies. The FTC will be alleging that they have been planting special cookies in the Apple Safari browser that bypass the browser's privacy settings, with the intent of tracking and targeting ads at web users. According to Bloomberg, they are likely looking at a $10 Million fine. This for a company with reported revenues of $8.14 Billion in Q1 alone. To put that in perspective, for an average family in the U.S., that $10M fine is equivalent to getting a $15 parking ticket. This fine is only large enough to make them laugh and shrug, not large enough to make Google stop and think about what their corporate culture has become.
It's hard to know if this incident says more about Google, whose corporate motto is "Don't be evil" or the FTC, whose mission is "Protecting America's Consumers" (or at least pretending to). Do you use Google? Probably. They have over 80% of the search engine market. Do you have to use Google? Goodness, no. There are lots of search engines out there. If you're using Firefox or Internet Explorer, check out their competitors sometime by adding search providers to your search bar. Competition is always good for the market, and it helps keep service providers honest.
"One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, one ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them." —The inscription upon the One Ring
Google has released a new privacy policy and a new terms of service (going into effect on 3/1/12) that is designed to streamline the user's experience throughout their product suite which includes their 84% market-share search engine, the widely used Gmail, the relatively new Google+ social networking platform, and more. This is important since so much web traffic flows through Google's systems at one point or another whether clicked to through a search, browsing monitored by being logged into your Google account, or through the ubiquitous Google analytics scripts on seemingly every web page. To be fair, Google isn't the only company that does these things. It's safe to say that online privacy and anonymity is an endangered species.
If you use Google's services at any time, you will want to review their new policy yourself. However, I will point out here some of the things you might discover reading yourself. Some of these things are not new, but have been in the old privacy policy as well for quite some time.
"We may collect device-specific information (such as your hardware model, operating system version, unique device identifiers, and mobile network information including phone number)."
Yes, Google may gather and keep data about your computer and cell phone, down to the phone number.
"When you use a location-enabled Google service, we may collect and process information about your actual location, like GPS signals sent by a mobile device. We may also use various technologies to determine location, such as sensor data from your device that may, for example, provide information on nearby Wi-Fi access points and cell towers."
Especially when you're on Google Maps, Google wants to know where you are. If you're on your smart phone, they will use the cell towers, GPS data, or other technological means to find out.
"We use the information we collect from all of our services to provide, maintain, protect and improve them, to develop new ones, and to protect Google and our users. We also use this information to offer you tailored content – like giving you more relevant search results and ads."
Google gets revenue through advertising. As they gather data from your web habits, searches, emails, social interactions, and more, they are assembling a virtual "you." This virtual you is not the real flesh and blood you which they couldn't care less about, it is you as a consumer which their real customers are very concerned about.
Whether or not you continue to use Google is up to you as a consumer of these "free" services they are offering. These services are very convenient. However, it's important to realize that although they are free of charge, they are not really free:
"We collect information to provide better services to all of our users – from figuring out basic stuff like which language you speak, to more complex things like which ads you’ll find most useful or the people who matter most to you online."
"When you upload or otherwise submit content to our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content."
I can't tell you which services to use and which not to use, but I can tell you it's important to go in with you're eyes open and know what you are doing. When you use Google's (and other services online) services, you are involved in a trade. Know what you're trading and make your choice, knowing that they are not the only game in town. Be safe out there!
To many people's dismay, and to the chagrin of computer security elites in Washington, the results of the 2012 presidential race have been prematurely leaked over seven months ahead of election night by the electronic voting machines manufactured by Diebold. Citizens are urged to follow the race and vote anyway, as maintaining the illusion of democracy is essential to peace and order. More from The Onion, here. ;-)
This joke has been circulating around the Internet since, well, since there was an Internet. Since it's been updated so many times over the years, I've pieced this together from several sources. The original author is unknown. It answers the simple question, "What would it be like if the different computer Operating Systems were airlines?" Enjoy! =)
Unix Airlines Each passenger brings a piece of the airplane and a box of tools to the airport. They gather on the tarmac, arguing constantly about what kind of plane they want to build and how to put it together. Eventually, they build several different aircraft, but give them all the same name. Some passengers actually reach their destinations. All passengers believe they got there.
Air DOS Everybody pushes the airplane until it glides, then they jump on and let the plane coast until it hits the ground again. Then they push again, jump on again, and so on...
Mac OSX Air You enter a white terminal, and all you can see is a woman sitting in the corner behind a white desk, you walk up to get your ticket. She smiles and says "Welcome to OS X Air, please allow us to take your picture", at which point a camera in the wall you didn't notice before takes your picture. "Thank you, here is your ticket" You are handed a minimalistic ticket with your picture at the top, it already has all of your information. A door opens to your right and you walk through. All the stewards, stewardesses, captains, baggage handlers, and ticket agents look the same, act the same, and talk the same. Every time you ask questions about details, you are told you don't need to know, don't want to know, and would you please return to your seat and watch the movie.
Windows 95 Air The terminal is pretty and colourful, with friendly stewards, easy baggage check and boarding, and a smooth take-off. After about 10 minutes in the air, the plane explodes with no warning whatsoever.
Windows NT Air Just like Windows 95 Air, but costs more, uses much bigger planes, and takes out all the other aircraft within a 40-mile radius when it explodes.
Windows XP Air You turn up at the airport, which is under contract to only allow XP Air planes. All the aircraft are identical, brightly colored and three times as big as they need to be. The signs are huge and all point the same way. Whichever way you go, someone pops up dressed in a cloak and pointed hat insisting you follow him. Your luggage and clothes are taken off you and replaced with an XP Air suit and suitcase identical to everyone around you as this is included in the exorbitant ticket cost. The aircraft will not take off until you have signed a contract. The in-flight entertainment promised turns out to be the same Mickey Mouse cartoon repeated over and over again. You have to phone your travel agent before you can have a meal or drink. You are searched regularly throughout the flight. If you go to the toilet twice or more you get charged for a new ticket. No matter what destination you booked you will always end up crash landing at Whistler in Canada.
Windows Vista/7 Airlines You enter a good looking terminal with the largest planes you have ever seen. Every 10 feet a security officer appears and asks you if you are "sure" you want to continue walking to your plane and if you would like to cancel. Not sure what cancel would do, you continue walking and ask the agent at the desk why the planes are so big. After the security officer makes sure you want to ask the question and you want to hear the answer, the agent replies that they are bigger because it makes customers feel better, but the planes are designed to fly twice as slow. Adding the size helped achieve the slow fly goal.
Once on the plane, every passenger has to be asked individually by the flight attendants if they are sure they want to take this flight. Then it is company policy that the captain asks the passengers collectively the same thing. After answering yes to so many questions, someone asks you, "Are you sure you want me to punch you in the face? Cancel or Allow?" you instinctively say "Allow". The stranger then punches you in the face.
After takeoff, the pilots realize that the landing gear driver wasn't updated to work with the new plane. Therefore it is always stuck in the down position. This forces the plane to fly even slower, but the pilots are used to it and continue to fly the planes, hoping that soon the landing gear manufacturer will give out a landing gear driver update.
You arrive at your destination wishing you had used your reward miles with XP airlines rather than trying out this new carrier. A close friend, after hearing your story, mentions that Linux Air is a much better alternative and helps.
Linux Air Disgruntled employees of all the other OS airlines decide to start their own airline. They build the planes, ticket counters, and pave the runways themselves. They charge a small fee to cover the cost of printing the ticket, but you can also download and print the ticket yourself.
When you board the plane, you are given a seat, four bolts, a wrench and a copy of the seat-HOWTO.html. Once settled, the fully adjustable seat is very comfortable, the plane leaves and arrives on time without a single problem, the in-flight meal is wonderful. You try to tell customers of the other airlines about the great trip, but all they can say is, "You had to do what with the seat?"
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Kidding aside, operating systems are not all fun and games. If you have questions about operating systems or how to better manage technology instead of technology managing you, then please give us a call at 619-741-1940, or send us a message!
Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day to all Americans! Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a great proponent for truth, justice, and the american way and one of the greatest leaders in our history speaking out for liberty and civil rights. He was assassinated for exercising his God-given right to free speech which is recognized by and enshrined in our Constitution in the Bill of Rights and for the freedom and racial harmony among all americans he sought and longed for. He conflicted with their agenda and they killed him for this. But we will not forget.
You may wonder, "What does this have to do with technology, Mr. Computer Consultant?" Well, it has a lot to do with it- much more than many of us realize. We live in perilous times today when NDAA, ProtectIP,SOPA and AB144 threaten our most basic civil rights today- the rights to free speech and assembly (1st Amendment), the right to bear arms to protect one self from an oppressive government (2nd Amendment), freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures (4th Amendment), the right not to be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law (5th Amendment) and the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury of one's peers in the same state and district in which the crime was allegedly committed (6th amendment). In case you weren't counting, that's half of the Bill of Rights (5 out of 10) under attack in just the past few months.
The world we live in has eerie similarities to the world we lived in 50 years ago (yes, that famous "I Have a Dream" Speech was nearly 50 years ago). Civil rights of average Americans are still in jeopardy. But the tactics have changed. We live in an increasingly digital world. We are more likely to play a YouTube video than to attend a speech in a public gathering. We are more likely to post a blog entry than to write a letter to our congressman. The battle field has moved, but the opponents of liberty are still busy abridging and denying our unalienable rights now in the digital world which were not granted in the Bill of Rights but recognized and published in the Bill of Rights.
ProtectIP and SOPA grant the government the ability to censor internet free speech enshrined in the 1st ammendment. Our "digital identity" is increasingly being tracked by Google Analytics, Facebook.net scripts, Flash "Supercookies" your browser can't delete and others we likely don't even know about in the government thanks to the Patriot Act, which compromises your right to privacy enshrined in the 4th amendment.
Meanwhile, in the "real" world, your 2nd amendment right to bear arms in lawful defense has all but been erased with AB144 as of January 1st in California. And NDAA, signed under a cloak of darkness the evening of December 31st by the President of the United States (POTUS) when many Americans were not aware of their own doings let alone what the government was up to, purports to negate your right to a speedy and public trial by a jury of one's peers in the same State and district guaranteed in the 6th amendment, replacing it with indefinite detention and no trial by a military tribunal in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
I am no politician, and I am not trying to be anything other than a concerned Computer Consultant and a Citizen of the United States (COTUS). As such, I commend this historic speech from "the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation" by a real Civil Rights leader, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to you and ask you to watch it in its entirety and let it sink in, because his speech is not about sound bites, it's about freedom and justice for all. Then think to yourself and in conversation with others on how it applies to all of us today. Do not let his words disappear into history. Do not forget.
In subsequent posts, I will be covering some of the ways you can protect yourself online from prying eyes. Thank you for reading and may God Bless America. =)
"1963 is not an end, but a beginning." - Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Internet Explorer 6 is dead. Sort of. According to Microsoft's Internet Explorer 6 Countdown site, United States usage of the browser has dropped below 1%, joining many other countries. This is being celebrated by Microsoft as an achievement of innovation and progress. And in part it is. However, more of this probably has to do with the rise of new browsers that didn't exist when IE6 was released. The latest market share statistics (November 2011) released from W3Schools.com show this pretty clearly.
Firefox
Chrome
Internet Explorer
Safari
Opera
38.1%
33.4%
21.2%
4.2%
2.4%
This probably has to do a lot also with Microsoft's program of silently upgrading browsers without user interaction- yet another reason to keep automatic updates turned off and run them yourself. These automatic updates are not all critical security updates being installed, they are whatever Microsoft thinks is important to happen on your computer. Before you jump in and upgrade Internet Explorer, remember to always check your critical programs you use every day to make sure they are compatible with the new version. Many times they are not.
Last but not least, consider an Open Source browser. Open Source means the whole community of developers and users are able to evaluate, audit and even modify the code to make sure the browser is doing everything what you want it to do, and none of the things you don't want it to do. And these days, when our clicks and movements are being increasingly tracked by advertisers and others, trustworthiness is an indispensable quality to have in a browser. And in a world that is becoming increasingly technological, where there is an "app" for everything, it's just as important to our freedom that our software be open and transparent.
Stay safe out there, and if you have any questions about how your company is using your software or staying up to date, give us a call at 619-741-1940!
So what do caffeineted beer, local e-Verify requirements, and handgun posession in public have in common? They will all be illegal in California starting January 1.
Our legislators in Sacramento have been very busy in 2011 protecting us from ourselves. Some of these laws are good and some of them, well, not so much. You can find a partial list here, but a visit to your attorney would be your best bet to get an understanding of what these myriads of changes to the law books mean to you and your business.
May you have a happy and prosperous new year in 2012!
